Cyclocross Nationals

This was my first time at 'cross nationals. No racing for me this year, though by the end of Sunday I felt like I had gotten a pretty good workout -- I was busy running around snapping pictures and conducting interviews for Cyclocross Magazine.

Unfortunately, I was only able to cover Sunday's events. Last weekend's snow storm left me stranded in a national guard armory Russell, Kan. on my way back from a week of snowboarding Park City Utah. It's a rough life I lead.

From all accounts, Sunday's conditions were better than they had been the day before, though the warm afternoon weather made the elite men's race a mudder.

There are plenty of well-written race recaps out there so I'll skip the play-by-play and go straight to the highlight of the day for me -- the collegiate men's pile-up. There's something about combining 170 athletes of varying ability levels, from elites to beginners, into one field that makes for an exciting first lap...

Ryan Trebon's crash only took out him and another unfortunate rider. Here's a video I shot of the first turn into the mud, see if you can count how many guys go down here: